Surfaces and Essences
by Emmanuel Sander · first published 2012
74% recommend21% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
Thorough, thought-provoking case that analogy is the core of all thinking, with language and metaphor shaping cognition; suits readers curious about the mind, AI, and how concepts form.
Common criticism: Some find it padded with repetitive examples
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Shows how analogy-making pervades human thought at all levels, influencing the choice of words and phrases in speech, providing guidance in unfamiliar situations, and giving rise to great acts of imagination.
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See also his book on this subject (with Emmanuel Sander), Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking. I'm currently reading it and enjoying it. A lot of reviews complain about how padded with examples it is, but this is really the substance of the book and I…
on “The case for and against analogies” ↗Hofstadter's books (such as Surfaces and Essences) provide a salutary reminder of how distant we are in AI technology in approach to a machine understanding of even ordinary human language expression. For those unfamiliar with his work, Hofstadter's…
on “Artificial neural networks are making strides towards consciousness?” ↗…wordplay he uses to convey them). If you look at the sum of his work, its tone comes across as pretty humble - humble for himself, that is; not apologetic for the ideas. His latest with Emmanuel Sander, "Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking", is comparatively much more straightforward and less obfuscated, and still fascinating.
on “Bret Victor's favourite books” ↗…of reading that book right now. So far, I'd say that I highly recommend it. I'm actually planning to do some work trying to implement a program for the Le Compte Est Bon game. I've also been reading Surfaces and Essences, also by Hofstadter, and recommend it as well.
on “Marvin Minsky Reflects on a Life in AI [video]” ↗The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank Code by Charles Petzold Artificial Life - Steven Levy Time Reborn - Lee Smolin The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil Surfaces and Essences - Douglas Hofstadter How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard -- One of my favorites is How Not to Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenbreg I have that on my list of "to read real soon now". Sounds fascinating.
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books?” ↗Douglas R. Hofstadter has written multiple books on the subject. He most directly addresses it in "Surfaces and Essences" co-written by Emmanuel Sander. It is enjoyable reading and very thorough. Pending revolutionary new insights I might even regard it as conclusive.
on “Logical Induction” ↗On the topic of how languages and metaphors affect (and might even form the fundamental substrate of) our thinking, I highly recommend Douglas Hofstadter (he of Godel, Escher, Bach fame) 's book Surfaces and Essences (2010).
on “Most images of black holes are illustrations. Here’s what our telescopes capture” ↗Since I have drawn such unexpected interest in the subject and power of analogies (and the broader class of mappings they belong to, metaphors), might I suggest Surfaces & Essences by Douglas Hofstadter (of Godel, Escher, Bach fame) and Emmanuel Sander. It is a very insightful, powerful, and amusingly self-referential cinderblock-sized tome on how the ability to draw inferences, create and manipul
on “Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B” ↗When I visited the Pacific North-West in 2015 (I herald from Italy), I made a point of visiting Powell’s Bookstore in Portland (OR) and even chose my hotel (which turned out to be the very hip Ace Hotel) based on proximity to it. I pointedly decided to buy second-hand copies of several of my favourite books (The Computational Beauty of Nature by Gary William Flake and Surfaces & Essences by Dougl
on “The demise of the second-hand bookshop” ↗Relevant book by Douglas Hofstadter - "Surfaces and essences: Analogies as the fuel and fire of thinking" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7711871-surfaces-and-ess...
on “Dijkstra Was Wrong About 'Radical Novelty'” ↗Surfaces and essences - Douglas Hofstadter, Emmanuel Sander A great book about how all communication and thought is mediated through metaphor. Douglas Hofstadter's books in general tend to be very thought-provoking.
on “Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?” ↗…bruteforcing through an insurmountable amount of data, arriving at black boxes that provide narrow solutions, with its inner structure remaining inescrutable to human understanding. I'm currently reading Surfaces and Essences from the same author, and it's so far been most illuminating. He very convincingly presents the thesis of the analogy being the foundation of each nd every concept and human thought. If someone could…
on “Retrospective review of Gödel, Escher, Bach (1996) [pdf]” ↗…Metamagical Themas for a good exploration of the argument. If you're interested in sophisticated explanations of conscious experience and semantics from a materialist's perspective, Hofstadter and Sander's 'Surfaces and Essences' and Minsky's 'Society of Mind' and 'Emotion Machine' are great. Dennett's 'Intentional Stance' is also relevant - discussing how we can sensibly talk about material systems as having intention. Bear…
on “MIT professor Marvin Minsky wins $540,000 award” ↗…the subject http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.307.... http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.57.7... I have also written a review on this very interesting book "Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking" http://mosermichael.github.io/cstuff/all/blogg/2013/10/15/po...
on “The Man Who Would Teach Machines to Think” ↗Hofstadter is a wonderful writer and illuminates his topics with much creativity and wonderful analogy. I highly suggest you look into his more recent books, especially Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking. He is also incredibly receptive to emails; as a first semester freshman he responded in depth to my email to him.
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?” ↗